CHOPS & CHANGES

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 449, 2 March 1899, Page 19

CHOPS & CHANGES

Improvements are still going on at Mr Kidd s Commercial Hotel. There have been few transfers of licenses since the commencement of the New Year. A good programme of sports has been provided for the Licensed Victuallers’ Picnic on March 8. I have heard it whispered that Mr J. Mcßae, of the Waverley Hotel, contemplates a trip to the land of the stars and stripes. The Provincial Hotel, at Napier, has changed hands, Mr John William McDuff, formerly of Wanganui, being the new proprietor. The Rev. Mr Isitt says that Invercargill is the drunken end of New Zealand, and the besotted West Coast is the drunken side. The police are still trying unsuccessfully to catch local publicans selling liquor during prohibited hours. Who is urging them on ? Jimmie Moore (Maggie Moore’s brother) has definitely given up the theatrical profession and has entered the licensed victuallers’ Trade. He is running an hotel in George Street, Sydney, Mrs Ted Russell (Miss Nelly Greenless) is conducting an hotel in Bourke Street, Melbourne. Mr Ted Russell was through Auckland a short time back with the Williamson-Woods Company. A temporary transfer of the license of the A ram aho Hotel, in the Wanganui district, was granted on February 17 from Mr Cody to Mr AV. G. Poole. Mrs Johnson, of the Waipa Hotel, at Kaihu, is in town on a visit. She is stopping at the Albion Hotel, and will probably return to her home this week. It is stated that on the occasion of the Premier’s recent visit to Tapanui two illuminated screens were displayed at night bearing the appeal, “ Give us back our beer.” News from Wanganui states that Samuel Hunter, a storekeeper, of Raetihi, seventy miles inland, was fined £2 and costs (£l4) for sly-grog selling. Her Majesty the Queen still clings to her modest glass of whisky and soda after meals. It does not seem to have shortened her life appreciably. Dr Gillespie, in his “ Natural History of Digestion, ” recommends the use, but not the abuse, of alcohol, and states that if taken with meals in moderate doses it is benefical. A Trentham (Victoria) hotelkeeper, Mr T. Ryan, of the Claremorris, has put up a wheat record for the locality. From eight acres he has obtained 84 bags of first quality wheat. At the ‘sly-grog selling case at Wanganui recently, Magistrate Kettle reprimanded the police for employing a paid spy to secure a conviction, and said it was an illegal act to aid or abet in the committal of a crime. There are signs of a restriction of production on the part of some of the Scotch distilleries, and this, with the ever-growing demand for their products, should soon equalise supply and demand (says an English contemporary). A visitor to the prohibition district of Clutha •writes: —“ Drunken boys and men were seen in considerable numbers on Christmas Day and on Christmas Eve. Drink is sold in all sorts of holes and corners known to the initiated. Tommy Taylor, who has beep stumping the South Island, states as his opinion that Bruce, and'probably Mataura, will carry the ‘ ‘ no license’ ’ this year. He opens his political and prohibition campaign in the North Island this week. At a meeting of the Napier Licensing Committee last week, a temporary transfer was granted from Mr F. L. K. Hill to Mr McDuff. Messrs A. Turnbull (chairman), F. Sutton, and H. Williams were on the Bench. Harry Bennett, formerly of the old Pier Hotel, has opened a very nice place called the Gladstone Coffee Palace in Quay Street. Everything is exceptionally neat and clean, the rooms are comfortably furnished, and the table is first-class. A Wanganui contemporary states that Mr E. H. Taylor recently lectured in the Church of England Schoolroom to a large audience on the subject, “Startling Drink Facts” Can this mean Tommy Taylor, or is there another “ Richmond in the Field. ’ ’ Mr Tom McEwin, the well-known caterer, has taken the dining-rooms at the Occidental Hotel in Vulcan Lane. He has made them very popular amongst racing and sporting men, who have established the place as a rendezuous for luncheon. Mr M. Walsh, of the Albion Hotel, expects to be married this month. He intends asking leave of absence for a month, and will proceed to Sydney where he will spend his honeymoon. I wish him every luck in the world. Mick is a genial and popular boniface, and deserves a worthy partner. The Hawera Star, in dealing with a recent slysrrog selling case in that district, delivers an editorial diatribe against providing Maoris with drink under any circumstances. This excessive drinking of the Maoris, which is certainly to be deplored, could be regulated and cheeked if there were more licensed houses and less sly-grog selling. The arrangements for the Licensed Victuallers’ Picnic on Wednesday, March 8, have undergone some alterations. It has been decided to embrace both the wholesale and retail trade, and the different brewers intend giving their employers & holiday. Instead of a lunch being provided, each party will take its own luncheon.

< ‘ Magistrate Hawkins asked a recent Balclutha O.A.P. applicant if he had ever been convicted of drunkenness of late years. ‘Why, he lives in a prohibition district,’ exclaimed his counsel. ‘ What of that ? ’ demanded the beak. ‘ Why, when I was at Waipahi, the other day. I saw two tuns of beer, and they told me one was for Tapanui and the other for Kelso—both prohibition districts.’ ’’—Southern exchange. A most enjoyable smoke night was held by the members and officers of the Volunteer Engineer Corps at the Albion Hotel on Monday evening last. About fifty were seated at the tables, and a very pleasant evening was spent. A number of songs were sung and toasts drunk, the evening concluding with the singing of the National Anthem.